Microsoft (MSFT) shares rose 1.70% to $45.59 in extended trading Tuesday after the software giant announced fourth quarter earnings that met revenue expectations, but missed on EPS.
The Redmond, Wa.-based firm reported $23.38 billion of revenue for the fourth quarter, up 18% from the same period last year. The consensus estimate was for $23 billion in revenue. Profit however, came in at $4.6 billion, down from last year and behind Wall Street analysts’ consensus estimate, both about $5 billion. At $0.55 earnings per share were down $0.04 from the same time last year and $0.05 below consensus estimates.
Microsoft said the acquisition of Nokia’s devices and services business cut $0.08 per share from earnings for the quarter that ended June 30, but revenues got a lift as a result of the company’s ongoing shift to cloud-based software products. Commercial cloud revenue grew 147% with an annualized run rate that exceeded $4.4 billion. Microsoft also got a boost from Windows, which saw a volume licensing revenue growth of 11%, Office and other software. Revenue from those segments was up 11 percent year-over-year, coming in at $13.48 billion.
“We are galvanized around our core as a productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world, and we are driving growth with disciplined decisions, bold innovation, and focused execution,” said Nadella in a statement on the results. “I’m proud that our aggressive move to the cloud is paying off – our commercial cloud revenue doubled again this year to a $4.4 billion annual run rate.”
For FY 2014, Microsoft reported revenue of $86.83 billion, net income of $22.07 billion and EPS of $2.63.
Coming into this report, Microsoft shares had set a 14 year high, rising 20% year-to-date and 43% over the last 52 weeks, valuing the company at about $371 billion.
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